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D. Boon
D. Boon (born Dennes Dale Boon, April 1, 1958 – December 22, 1985) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when he was killed in a van accident, Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the Californian punk rock trio The Minutemen. He is number 89 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Biography Youth Dennes Boon was born in San Pedro, California on April 1, 1958. Boon's father, a navy veteran, worked putting radios into Buick cars, and the Boons lived in former World War II barracks that had been converted into public housing.Azerrad, 2001. p. 63 As a teenager, Boon began painting and signed his works "D. Boon", partly because "D" was his slang for cannabis, partly after Daniel Boone, but mostly because it was similar to E. Bloom, Blue Öyster Cult's vocalist and guitarist.Azerrad, 2001. p. 64 Minutemen Boon formed the band in January 1980 with childhood friend Mike Watt on bass from the remnants of their previous band, The Reactionaries, later adding former Reactionaries drummer George Hurley, to form The Minutemen. Death The Minutemen continued until December 22, 1985, when Boon was killed in a van accident in the Arizona desert near the Californian border on route I-10. Because he had been sick with fever, Boon was lying down in the rear of the van without a seatbelt when the van ran off the road. Boon was thrown out the back door of the van and died instantly from a broken neck. He was 27 years old. The band immediately dissolved, though Watt and Hurley would form the band fIREHOSE soon after. The live album Ballot Result was released in 1987, over a year after Boon's death. Musical style Boon's guitar style is very distinctive; he rarely used distortion and frequently set the EQ on his amplifier so that only the treble frequencies were heard - the bass and midrange frequencies would be turned off completely. His style had a heavy funk/blues feel which was very different from other hardcore punk bands in the 80s.Michael Azerrad, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (USA: Little Brown, 2001). Equipment He initially used a Fender Stratocaster on the Reactionaries' practice-shed demo (now the first side of the 1979 LP) and on the Minutemen's earliest recordings. A Gibson Melody Maker was his guitar of choice as seen in the "This Ain't No Picnic", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "King of the Hill" music videos, until some annoying electrical shocks during one gig led Watt to spur Boon to trade the guitar in. Boon then started using Fender Telecasters with heavy bodies for the rest of his life. Most pictures and videos of D. Boon and the Minutemen depict Boon using Fender Twin amplifiers. He eschewed effect pedals, preferring to plug straight into his amplifier, until later in his career when he added an Ibanez Tube Screamer to his signal chain for guitar solos (as heard on "King of the Hill" from Project: Mersh.) Artwork Boon is responsible for the writing and composition of the Minutemen's most anthemic songs (in contrast to Watt's stream of consciousness lyrics), including "This Ain't No Picnic," "Corona," "The Price of Paradise," and "Courage." A lifelong artist, Boon also created drawings or paintings for the Minutemen releases Joy, The Punch Line, What Makes a Man Start Fires?, The Politics of Time, Project: Mersh and 3-Way Tie (For Last). Legacy Since the first fIREHOSE album, Mike Watt has dedicated every record he has worked on - be it fIREHOSE, solo, or otherwise - to D. Boon's memory. A song on Watt's semi-autobiographical 1997 album Contemplating the Engine Room, "The Boilerman", is about D. Boon; on the recording itself, guitarist Nels Cline plays one of Boon's last Telecaster guitars, which Watt is in possession of.We Jam Econo - full-length Minutemen documentary (2005). Watt also mentions his fallen friend in fIREHOSE's "Disciples Of The 3-Way" (mr. machinery operator) and his own "Burstedman" (The Secondman's Middle Stand). Boon has been paid tribute by American alternative band Stigmata-A-Go-Go with the song "D. Boon", from their 1994 album It's All True, American band Uncle Tupelo with a different song "D. Boon" from their 1991 album Still Feel Gone, and American band Centro-matic's song "D.Boon-Free (A Ninth Grade Crime)" off "The Static Vs. The Strings Vol. 1". In 2003, former D. Boon roommate Richard Derrick released the CD D. Boon And Friends, a collection of jam session tapes he did with D. Boon, and rare Boon solo performances, as the first release on his Box-O-Plenty Records label. Mike Watt authorized the release and provided technical assistance and liner notes. Notes